grocery bill, OMG!!

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

I save $ by fixing alot of soups, casseroles, a pot of beans every other week, chilie, spagettie, roast.
NEVER fix anything from a box or buy processed food anymore.

This is what we do too. Man soups sure go a long way don't they! And a pot of spaghetti will last us for two meals not just one. And I think it's better the second day

 

[Fay at Frizzled Feathers]

Here is a good site for budgeting your groceries for a month and preparing meals , even has geat recipes as well.

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/index1.htm

Hope that helps you some.

We spend about $800.00 a month for groceries but thats for 7 Adults , 1 teen , and 2 small children . We don't eat out , we prepare most things from scratch , except roman noodles LOL
If we have a sweet tooth we get to baking , we occassionally buy icecream.

I like to prepare big meals and freeze so they are quick n simple when needed.I also make all of our breads.

Can't imagine how much less we would spend if it were just our fam of 6 , LOL

Can't wait to get the garden in and producing , will save lots on all the fruits and vegies !

 

[Fay at Frizzled Feathers]

Here is a good site for budgeting your groceries for a month and preparing meals , even has geat recipes as well.

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/index1.htm

Hope that helps you some.

We spend about $800.00 a month for groceries but thats for 7 Adults , 1 teen , and 2 small children . We don't eat out , we prepare most things from scratch , except roman noodles LOL
If we have a sweet tooth we get to baking , we occassionally buy icecream.

I like to prepare big meals and freeze so they are quick n simple when needed.I also make all of our breads.

Can't imagine how much less we would spend if it were just our fam of 6 , LOL

Can't wait to get the garden in and producing , will save lots on all the fruits and vegies !

 

[sugarbush]

I actually don't think 600.00 a month is bad. We spend about that for two people and a baby. We don't buy any meats or eggs at the store, we do buy dog and cat food that is included in that. Other than the dog and cat food our biggest exspense is cheese and icecream. We eat a lot of both. Diapers we buy for daycare, but use cloth at home.

We tried the cutting coupons thing and found it makes us spend a lot of time and a lot of money on stuff we would not buy otherwise.

If you think about it 150 a week for two people is only 10.00 each a day. You cannot eat out for that.

 

[Cetawin]

Oh time for a budget young lady. LOL

I admit I do spend that amount monthly for 3 adults and one 12 year old bottomless pit but I do not buy any junk...it is a rare thing indeed.

However, DH and I are on very speciifc diets because we are weight lifting and bodybuilding...so lil ole me who 5'2" and 95 lbs is eating 3000 calories per day.

Buy in bulk...it is cheaper on you.

PS. with my garden this year and hunting...I will cut my food bill way down.

 

[PQ]

Quote:
Agreed... We spend close to $300 a week, we have never bought meat, eggs, cheese, bread, or milk...
Coupons do make you spend more.
We have 2 tweens and 3 under 4. Our money goes on diapers, pull ups, night times, pet feed, sadly water, cleaning supplys, gas. The cleaning supplies and gas (for car & gernerator) is what kills us. Though we do make our own goats milk soap now. My husband and children get rashes from alot of the store bought cleaners. We live over 60 miles from town so going in is a big deal. Drive 44 miles to get he kids to and from school. And it is a great one room school house. Our power company has lots of trouble keeping up out here so we use a generator alot. And sometimes we spend more for less when we go to bulk buying, 800 rolls of Paper towels or 30 different needed items... Though I do admit to buying diapers and pet feed in bulk.

But Im sure if you asked anyone of the people in this home they would not change our way of life, not one bit.
The country life is the life for us!

So the amount we spend is well worth it! Happy days!

 

[Alaska animal lover]

Quote:
This is exactly what I do. I wrote a list of every meal I know how to cook, then next to that I listed what I serve with them for side dishes. Then I wrote my grocery list based on one month of those meals. 3 adults two kids, soon to be 3.

For example, if I have 4 meals in the month that call for ground beef, then I put 4lb. ground beef on my shopping list. Three meals that I use broccoli? One costco bag of frozen broccoli on my list. I did this for everything, down to the condiments.

When I cook, I will cook all or half the beef at once, then divide and freeze it so the next time I don't need to do that step.
I also plan my menu around using the leftovers in another meal.
I have left over roast, potatoes, and carrots in the freezer that will turn into stew, or soup one night this week.

I go once a month, and I shop in bulk, it does save money here in Alaska. Even the meat, I bring it home and vacuume seal it into portions.
There are certain things that won't save me money by buying in bulk if they will just go to waste, so instead of buying 5lbs. of onions, I will go to Fred Meyer and buy the one or two that I will use for the month.

My last shopping trip, I spent $400.00 and that was with buying paper towels, toilet paper, laundry detergent, softener, shampoo.
So next month won't cost me as much because I won't have to buy a lot of those things again.

For desserts, I make them from scratch. But I still check my pantry and make sure I have the ingredients. I don't want to back to the store for any reason, because I am one of those people that go in for sour cream, and come out with $50.00 worth of stuff.

You know, everyone just has to find what works for them. At least now you are aware of the situation and want to do something about it. Good for you!

 

[Alaska animal lover]

I just wanted to post this for anyone interested. It's the USDA estimate on what it costs for food, per week or month, per individual.These are from Dec 2008. They don't have anything more recent.http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/FoodPlans/2008/CostofFoodDec08.pdf

 

[warmfuzzies]

We spend about $300 a month, not counting stuff like toiletries, food only. There are five of us, but one is 7months old, so she doesnt really count.

So $300 a month for four people. We hunt, though our deer is almost gone from 2007. We dont buy eggs, and we get our milk and cheese from WIC which saves a lot. I NEVER buy chips, cookies, etc. Our splurges are stuff like chocolate chips for homemade cookies, and frozen pizza or something for a treat about once a week.

I only shop once a month, except for fresh stuff like milk and produce.

I also try to make our bread myself, though that doesnt always happen.

 

[key west chick]

Wow, once again BYC'ers are so helpful. I'm gonna have a talk with the boy when he gets home from school about a grocery budget. I never have done a list and thats the first thing I'm gonna do. We don't eat out that much, so I can't really cut back on that. But the groceries, thats another story. I guess I should have gotten some cheese with my whine!!!